Even with only a few minutes against Liverpool he found himself on the end of a good chance. If he would have cracked that shot into the goal, it would have been epic, instead of blazing it over. If Ronaldo stays, this will be his role: limited minutes. He still barely even pressed, fresh legs and everything.
Cristiano Ronaldo (I stay)
- Thread starter MyOnlySolskjaer
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If he goes to a Champions League club, he can expect to be used like he was last night.
If he stays, he can also expect to be used like he was last night but start in the Europa League and League Cup. Even then, he can consider himself blessed that ETH trusted him with ten minutes to go with only a one goal lead.
Basically, the only way from us is down, not up. Him courting Champions League clubs all summer mirrors our pursuit of Frenkie De Jong. It’s just not happening.
Messi is two years younger. It’s going to be the same for him at 37.
If he stays, he can also expect to be used like he was last night but start in the Europa League and League Cup. Even then, he can consider himself blessed that ETH trusted him with ten minutes to go with only a one goal lead.
Basically, the only way from us is down, not up. Him courting Champions League clubs all summer mirrors our pursuit of Frenkie De Jong. It’s just not happening.
Messi is two years younger. It’s going to be the same for him at 37.
I think Antony would suit him well. Antony doesn't score many goals, tends to play far from goal and on the touchline, and is a good crosser. Gapko less so, for sure, as he's basically a less explosive, tidier Rashford who would want to play 1-2s with Martial.
Best case scenario would probably be he takes a pay cut and leaves and we sign a physical, younger #9 with re-sale value to backup Martial who gets a year to convince Ten Hag one way or the other. If Martial is good and we keep him and sign an expensive #9 next summer then we move this signing on for a 5-10M loss.
It's too bad because Cristiano is the right fit to fight with Martial (who is much better at linking play but will probably go through a slump at some point) and be a Chicharito type scoring goals off the bench at this point in his career, but he doesn't seem to be eager to accept that role, even though it's probably best for the club AND for Portugal, where he should be their backup 9 in a Leao-Jota-Silva frontline that would have lots of energy and allow them to get Vitinha (who was phenomenal the other day against Lille and seems to be starting for PSG), a runner like Matheus Nunes or Renato Sanches and either Ruben Neves or one of their giant, boring DMs into a far more balanced midfield, especially since they have the best set of attacking fullbacks in the world in Nuno Mendes and Cancelo who could attack more freely with a quality midfield like that.
The thing the "he was the only one last season/ always gets you goals" lot don't realise is that when we play Ronaldo
- It's very hard to press effectively considering the physical robustness of this era of the PL.
- We end up resorting to a tactic of "deliver the ball / chance to Ronaldo". Sometimes it works but it's not the way forward if we want to develop a top class team system
The hell it is. It's about the match being played, not about Ronaldos feelings - we are playing to win not babysit his ego.
FFS he works for the club. Probably entered into some sort of written agreement with terms and shit like thatDisrespectful? Feck off with that crap. There's only one person that's been disrespectful during this whole situation and it's Ronaldo himself.
If you mean we should not have subbed him in at all then totally agree. Don't see a single point of bringing him on.
Guy doesn't run doesn't press doesn't pass always take the shot regardless of whatever position he's despite the score was only 2-1. He basically was gifting the ball back to the Scousers. Imagine if they'd have scored another from him giving them back the ball. He doesn't think about the team at all only about himself. What a narcissistic twat. He absolutely deserves everything the fans threw at him. Hope he leaves asap.
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So what to do with him now? No takers, at all? Having a 500k pw super sub isn't really great. Neither for Ronaldo's ego nor for us as a club.
That's probably another reason he wants to leave, he cant press in this team.
I think we can afford to give Ronaldo starts against teams we're dominating. But only once we get better at Hag ball and nail the foundations of his system.
It's easier to integrate one semi fitting player into a working system than learning and making the system work with a player not fitting
This alone could take a couple of years I'm afraid. Then even a well oiled machine in a one horse league like Bayern would not want him. That speaks volumes imo.
If he stays best chance for him to start is against some teams we basically never heard of in the Europa League.
I mean there's managing the foundations and then there's mastering the art. If we wait until we're perfect, Ronaldo will be long retired, yeah.
But after two games of a complete struggle it is clearly visible we'll still take some time for consistent basic Hag ball, something I'd hope we will see by mid season
Don't mind him sticking around to play the role last night. Big time sub when we need a goal etc. But he shouldn't be starting for us anymore, it doesn't work.
Nope (ok maybe), nope and nope
Even with the foundations it'd take us at least a season imo. Because atm the squad is not fit for ETH style at all. Then even if we manage to implement some foundations starting Ronaldo will just feck up all the efforts done previously.
I said somewhere here a team can afford a luxury player like Ronaldo only if:
- they're much stronger than their opponent
- if they're not much stronger they'd need a midfield a couple of levels above the opponent's midfield in order to control the match
- the offensive contribution of such luxury player must be phenomenal to justify their lacking in other departments
The first two won't happen with United especially in the PL. The last one can't happen either he can only get worse as he gets older.
And that 2nd point is what his fanboys seem to have trouble comprehending. If the main tactic is to play through him and our entire game plan is centered around having everyone deliver balls to the great goal scorer that is Ronaldo (whose last 40 goals in a season campaign was all the way back when he was still at Real Madrid), then everyone else's output would suffer.
There is no one that can convince me ETH is keen on him. His pre and post match comments were just basically saying Ronaldo is not compatible.
Cristiano Ronaldo will never accept such a role.
If push comes to shove, what can he do about it?
Imagine ETH telling him he’s starting out in Greece or somewhere on a Thursday night as we have a big game on the Sunday and need players rested for that 
If United keeps on playig well and winning, then its fine. However if United plays bad or lose, you will see the horde being unleashed on ETH
I think Mendes will be working very very hard for him in the next few days - he will be unable to accept his status in the team now and it’s really back fired on him as he hasn’t had any takers so far and he doesn’t fit the system at Utd now either.
There is absolutely no way he can remain at Utd though now - he would become to much of a sideshow/distraction.
I reckon he will end up at Athletico Madrid or AC Milan late on in the window
There is absolutely no way he can remain at Utd though now - he would become to much of a sideshow/distraction.
I reckon he will end up at Athletico Madrid or AC Milan late on in the window
Is that you Stormzy?
We should keep him.
Martial has a notoriously poor injury record and Gapko/Rashford as #9 would be tragic.
Martial has a notoriously poor injury record and Gapko/Rashford as #9 would be tragic.
I agree but Milan aren't interested and Atletico would ruin his legacy at Madrid.
AC Milan fancy a geezer striker don't they?
The sooner he leaves, the better. He is not hard working, he is selfish, he could care less about our pre-season and getting himself into top physical form. He was offered all across Europe to get his move away from United. He does not press, he expects to be the one only focal player to finish attacks. Hopefully Rashford and Martial catch some form and stay fit, while Garnacho develops fast. CR7 is well past it and unlike Zlatan for Milan he is not a uniting experienced figure in our dressing room.
Imagine, he's forced to stay and then come December and the cameras doesn't even zoom him on the bench anymore. Cause the interest for him is gone. Then it's not CL teams any longer, it's MLS at best.
"Jorge, please call Beckham"
"Jorge, please call Beckham"
Can't see him leave anytime soon. And as he openly wants to leave, this means he has much less leverage to negotiate his terms. For him to leave he would have to agree with a massive pay-cut which I doubt his ego would accept that.
He knew what he wanted last night, he ran his socks off whenever we had the ball to make himself available to score, but couldn't give a shit when we were without a ball. I don't think he did one run when we were defending. You can see he wanted to score so hard to make himself bigger than the team.
Come on Dortmund…just try and make it work for a year…
ZERO chance of this. The only possibility left for him is Portugal - hence Benfica, if they qualify
He won’t go to just any UCL team - a prerequisite was to join a UCL team that has a chance at winning it - which reduces his options even more. He’s staying & rotating like every other player on the team has to
At this point, I think he'd join any UCL team that'd pay a good chunk of his current wages.
He only cares about extending his UCL record of goals.
I still think that Ronaldo could go to Sporting, despite Amorim's objections.
Sporting has sold a lot of players this summer. I know Sporting is a selling club. However, Sporting may be making space for something.
Ronaldo's options are limited. The most romantic move would be back to Sporting. He should take the option. Otherwise, if he's desperate for Champions League football, he will have to go somewhere like Shaktar or Trabzonspor (if they qualify).
Ronaldo is a player that is used to winning, had won everything. He plays with passion for the game.
United is not a club that is compatible with his ambitions, is not a club that is used to winning.
The player with most goals last season for United, and United supporters want Ronaldo to leave, saying the problem is him, just because the guy likes to win everything!!!
Imagine giving up a season in the Premier League for six Champions League games. It's pretty much retirement. He won't experience many nights like last night at Sporting, though he hardly experienced last night I suppose.
He does not have any options, so he's now reduced to a part time role at best
If he finally stays it will be so easy to bench him. He lost the credit this summer and continues to do so every minute he plays. It was obvious yesterday that he doesn't care about the system or the collective interests. It's not like he had to play the whole game and had to measure efforts (a big problem under the current demands if he plays as a starter), he was there for 10 minutes and didn't move a finger to help the team.
Ronaldo is a soloist, he's spent his whole career being one and we won't change his nature at 37 yo. If he finally stays he's going to be a square peg in a round hole for a whole year, except when we play him as a supersub where he could save us in certain situations.
I can see ten Hag trying to play the man here and there (like yesterday despite his presence being predictably pointless), but when the frictions start (inevitable) our manager won't have the same diplomacy. If Ronaldo is clever he will find a way out this summer. He's finished here.
Ronaldo is a soloist, he's spent his whole career being one and we won't change his nature at 37 yo. If he finally stays he's going to be a square peg in a round hole for a whole year, except when we play him as a supersub where he could save us in certain situations.
I can see ten Hag trying to play the man here and there (like yesterday despite his presence being predictably pointless), but when the frictions start (inevitable) our manager won't have the same diplomacy. If Ronaldo is clever he will find a way out this summer. He's finished here.
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